‘OMBILICAL’ TRACKLISTING :
i. Phoneme (Phone Me)
ii. Death & The Seahorse
iii. Unbosoming
iv. Skeletons
v. How I Sit At The Piano
vi. Lorabora
vii. H.Paradoxus
viii. Peu Concluant
ix. The Dark Is Light Enough
x. To The Safety Of The River
Textile Ranch (named after a 1985 instrumental by Felt) is the unfeathered nom-de-plume Second Language founder, Glen Johnson, invariably reserves for his more playful experiments with electronic music. The 2L label itself was launched back in 2009 with a crowd-funded Textile Ranch release, ‘Tombola’ but the name itself harks back to 2000, when Static Caravan released the clear vinyl 7”, ‘Huit Oiseaux Bruns Dans La Nuit Blanche (Modèle Réduit).’ Further lowkey releases peppered the next few years on the since-retired independents, Audraglint, Lykill, Very Friendly and Make Mine Music.
‘Ombilical,’ (French for ‘umbilical’ no less) could be considered an exercise in, literally, navel-gazing, as it finds Johnson far removed from the introspective guitar-led songsmithery of his former group, Piano Magic and immersed in his love of electronic composition. By his own admission, ‘Ombilical’ serves foremost as a sonic toybox for Johnson, its often disharmonic, looped polyrhythms are inspired greatly by the Fluxus art movement of the 60’s and 70’s which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. As he explains, “I don’t consider anything here to be finished. There’s a Meccano process to what I’m doing – ideally, I could, effectively, add to the tracks indefinitely until they no longer remotely resemble the starting point.”
Originally intended for release in 2018 and then again in 2019 (the letter-pressed sleeves bear either year accordingly), unhappy with the results, Johnson junked at least 2 prior drafts of the album before settling on this final version. Guests here include Amanda Butterworth (aka Mücha), Oliver Cherer (Dollboy/Gilroy Mere), Ola Szmidt and Franck Alba (ex-Piano Magic).
‘Ombilical’ came as an Arigato Pak, courtesy of Stumptown Printers, Oregon, letter-pressed by New North Press, London. It was left to the purchaser’s discretion as to where (or if) to cut the attached red raffia umbilical cord.
Initial copies of the album came with a bonus disc, ‘Prostheses.’
‘PROSTHESES’ TRACKLISTING :
i. We Can Rebuild Him
ii. First Love Remembered
iii. A Match With The Moon
iv. Lost On Both Sides
v. Sleepless Dreams
vi. Even So
vii. Aspecta Medusa
viii. Out Of One Cage And Into Another
ix. Touched By A Terrible Angel
x. A Last Confession
SOLD OUT
Download/stream ‘Ombilical’ and ‘Prostheses’ from the official Textile Ranch Bandcamp page
